Re: [tied] Fw: [language-origins] Origin of the Sumerian language

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 21325
Date: 2003-04-28

----- Original Message -----
From: "Geraldine Reinhardt" <waluk@...>
To: <Nostratica@yahoogroups.com>; <language-origins@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 6:01 PM
Subject: [tied] Fw: [language-origins] Origin of the Sumerian language


> Any truth to the following that Sumerian was more closely related to Finnish than to I-E or Semitic?

No. In fact, all existing theories about the external affinities of Sumerian inspire very little confidence. Many "long-rangers" seem to accept the possibility that Sumerian is a distant cousin (within Nostratic) of both IE and Uralic (the latter family includes Finnish), and that there is a still remoter relationship between all of them and Afroasiatic (including Semitic). But no facts known to me justify the claim that Sumerian has some kind of special relationship to Finnish (or to Finno-Ugric). Notwithstanding which, "proving" that Hungarian and Sumerian are closely connected is a popular sport among amateur linguists in Hungary.

Piotr